Philadelphia Team Retains Compher Cup
Teams representing the New Jersey State Golf Association and the Golf Association of Philadelphia (GAP) squarred off in the Compher Cup matches on Monday, April 21st at Pine Valley Golf Club in Clementon, NJ. In this 46th annual competition, the Compher Cup matches are an opportunity for leading amateurs from the two golf associations to meet and compete in team and individual matches. The GAP prevailed by a score of 12.5 to 5.5 points, retaining the Cup and raising its overall record against the NJSGA to 31-11-4. On a cool and gusty day, Pine Valley played a long 6,850 yards.
The New Jersey team was captained by Brian Komline, 2007 Player of the Year and NJSGA Open champion. His teammates were Robert Cronheim, Michael Deo, Tom Gramigna, Roger Hoit, Tom Hyland, Sean Leonard, Mark McGowan, Bill McGuinness, Allan Small, Merv Smith and Ron Vannelli.
The competition is named for Fred Compher, a past president of the NJSGA, who conceived the matches and donated a silver trophy to symbolize the rivalry. The inaugural competition was held in 1962. Two 12-man teams play simultaneous individual and four-ball matches in one day of competition, with a total of 18 points at stake. The visiting Philadelphia team prevailed last year at Mountain Ridge Country Club. New Jersey last won in 2004 at Bent Creek Country Club near Lancaster, PA.
The Compher Cup took place at Pine Valley twice previously, in 1992 and 1996, with Philadelphia winning both times. Pine Valley also served as the venue for the Walker Cup in 1936 and 1985. George Arthur Crump discovered the property and designed most of the course with help from Harry S. Colt and several others, but he died before it was completed in 1918. Architect Robert Trent Jones once said that Pine Valley “possesses more classic holes than any other course in the world.” Golf historian James W. Finegan has written of the design: “Crump’s routing plan for Pine Valley is masterful: it pays strict obeisance to its creator’s precepts, yet it manages, remarkably, to appear splendidly non-conformist, as though each hole were the product not of any guideline or rule of thumb but of a singular lightning-like flash of inspiration. The boldness, the bigness, the grandeur, the uncompromising challenge that informs virtually every square foot of this nonpareil course all combine to elicit astonishment, awe, admiration.”
